The Five Stages of Love
by debbiechan
Summary: Follow Ishida and Orihime through the Five Stages of Love. Four drabbles and one formal doublesonnet written for the Five Stages of Love Challenge 2006 at Live Journal.


The Five Stages of Love

by debbiechan

Description: Five drabbles written for the Stages of Love Challenge 2006 on LiveJournal. The five stages are Attraction, Passion, Intimacy, and Commitment. I asked for and was happily assigned the pairing of Ishida and Orihime from Bleach.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, only an obsession with this magical pairing. Theirs is the fairytale I tell myself every night so I won't have bad dreams.

M_y accompanying fanarts for these drabbles can be found at my deviant art account or (eventually) on my website._

Attraction (100 words)

The sight of Inoue Orihime's chest stirred most boys, and Ishida Uryuu was no exception.

Within Inoue Orihime's chest, however, dwelled a giant crush on Kurosaki Ichigo.

Then one day Ishida saved her life. He swooped her up in his arms, and because his movement was unnaturally fast, Orihime had no clue what was happening. Then Ishida disengaged the arm under her legs and gingerly set Orihime's feet touching the rooftop.

Heart racing, eyes blinking, she stared at him. Ishida-kun seemed like an entirely different person.

He had not let go of her upper arm.

She didn't want him to.

Romance (two formal sonnets, twenty-eight lines of pentameter rhymed verse)

T_he traditional definition of "romance" involves chivalry and the rescue of fair damsels, and oh yes, did Ishi and Hime provide that in canon! So here ya go, ridiculous sonnets. Please forgive me; it's been a while since I wrote one of these babies._

Shinigami appear! Escape routes are thwarted!

Our couple swerves and dashes through the fray.

How often these days is a romance started

By fooling the bad guys then running away?

On a bright Seireitei rooftop, Ishida comes to know

That Orihime's will to kill fails, falling like a feather.

For two more days, he doesn't summon his bow.

For two nights, in one sense, they are _sleeping_ _together._

While Orihime dozes and he takes night shift,

Shall he compare her to a summer's day?

Strands of long, shiny auburn hair ride adrift

Her throaty snores and noisy breathing. Hey--did she just say

_Kurosaki-kun?_ She turns to one side with a little moan.

The Seireitei fills with moonlight, and Ishida feels alone.

When our couple is parted again, it's because

Ishida knows that Orihime won't aim to kill.

Her feathery will floats to no end, while his bow draws

A murderous purpose. Tonight, the air is still.

A crescent moon is witness to the duel.

"By the pride of the Quincy," Ishida swears

And faces Kurotshuchi, that twelfth division ghoul.

A zanpakutou is drawn. A deadly arrow flares.

Two great powers clash; rage ignites the night.

Then after tall buildings and stone walls lie wrecked,

Ishida idly wonders if his sensei was right--

O_ne day you will know what you want to protect._

All his powers are gone, and his vision's a blur.

"Orihime," he whispers. "At least I saved _her_."

Passion (100 words)

A geek and a ditz. Such a combo, goes common knowledge, makes for red-hot lovers.

I mean, look at them. He's all Mr. Cool with the low blood pressure, but he flushes red as a poppy when Orihime smiles at him. She doesn't seem to realize that chickens come from eggs, so you'd figure she wouldn't know anything about _human being sex_. But mark my words, Keigo. For that type, giving head must be like putting mustard on her cupcakes. No big deal.

I tell you, those two are going to have at it one day. Like _crazed weasels, _man.

Intimacy (100 words)

There would come a time Orihime would know which spots on Ishida's fingers were calloused from not using a thimble and which were calloused from drawing the bow.

With those fingers, Ishida would separate strands hair that were (as he always suspected) equally divided into three colors--brown, gold, orange--with the cumulative effect being auburn.

Of all the parts of Ishida's body that would be revealed to her, none would surprise Orihime so much as the sight of his ears. His head in her lap, she would brush back those blue-black locks and gasp.

"Uryuu, you have beautiful ears!"

Commitment (100 words)

"_By the pride of the Quincy, I, Ishida Uryuu, swear to you, Inoue Orihime, that I will always love, honor, and protect you."_

Orihime understood why Ishida felt the need to make dramatic pronouncements to the rest of the world, but she had to giggle every time he flaunted one in her direction.

Later, friends would tell her not to worry, that it was utterly perfect that he looked so solemn and that she giggled during the ceremony.

Orihime's favorite part was putting on the dress her groom had sewn for her.

Ishida's favorite part was zipping the dress off.


End file.
